TheBovineTBProblem

Bovine TB, or Mycobacterium bovis, or bovine tubercle bacillus, is part of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. The organism is carried by many animals including deer, cats, dogs, pigs, alpacas, sheep and, of course, cattle. Mycobacterium bovis is an aerobic bacterium and the cause of TB in cattle. Bovine TB can jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis in humans, and this is where the problem has historically been. In the 1930s and 40s, it was responsible for over 50,000 cases a year and 2500 deaths annually. By 1960, all herds had been tested twice for TB, and all animals which had tested positive, or 'reactors', were slaughtered and it became a notifiable disease.

The government introduced compulsory cattle testing and devised a compensation programme for all destroyed cattle.

In the last decade, human contraction of Tb from animals has been in only handful of cases. Pasteurisation of milk, immunisation and a healthy diet have seen the number of cases reduce dramatically over the last 100 years and in most circles, it is considered no longer a human concern. Farming practices have changed and food has become cheaper. Ironically, this intensive farming leads to poor condition for cattle, causing poor health, and could itself be contributing to the increase in bovine TB in herds.

For the farmers, it is a different issue. Cattle with bovine TB cannot be moved and cannot be sold in Europe, causing great financial strain on farmers. Whilst a vaccination for BCG is available for cattle, there is currently no approved test to differentiate between wild TB and vaccinated TB, although one has been researched. The Diva Test - READ HERE

It should be noted that cattle with bTB lesions do routinely and legitimately enter the food chain.

Save Me fully sympathises with farmers who are affected by this awful disease, but it does not believe, based on scientific evidence, that the solution lies in the culling of badgers. It believes that culling could make matters worse.

The Krebs Review on Bovine TB in Cattle and Badgers reported in 1997 and concluded that, despite there being “compelling” evidence that badgers were involved in transmitting the infection to cattle, the development of a control policy was made difficult because the effectiveness of badger culling could not be quantified with the data available. It, therefore, recommended that a large-scale field trial - the Randomised Badger Culling Trial (RBCT CLICK HERE ) - be set up to quantify the impact of culling badgers on the incidence of TB in cattle, and to determine the effectiveness of strategies to reduce the risk of a TB cattle herd breakdown.

The Independent Scientific Group on Cattle TB (ISG), that included several members of the Krebs Review group, was formed in 1998 to plan and subsequently provide independent oversight of the RBCT. It also provided advice on the content and direction of Defra's (then MAFF) TB research programme. The ISG published their final report on 18 June 2007. This trial slaughtered 9818 badgers. It stated that "culling badgers would have no meaningful effect on bovine TB in cattle."

You may have expected that to be the end of culling badgers, however... On 19th July 2011, Caroline Spelman announced that the government would carry out two pilot badger culls in Somerset and Gloucestershire. This was part of the government's bovine TB eradication programme. Caroline Spelman's announcement of the proposed pilot badger cull here

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Landowners who wish to cull badgers would need to apply for a licence from Natural England.

The trials will assess the humaneness, efficacy, and safety of the free shooting of badgers.

Groups of qualified landowners under licence will be able to shoot badgers at night with a high-velocity rifle.

70% of the badgers in any trial area must be slaughtered.

Each trial area must be at least 150 km2.

A cull can only spread the disease further since it cannot be contained. The spread of the disease outside a cull zone is known as perturbation, which can only be prevented by hard boundaries and short culling periods. All lactating creatures in the wild – including rats and squirrels – carry bTB, and culling for a period exceeding five days will lead to an increase in the spread of the disease. Against scientific advice, the proposed culling period has been extended to six weeks, and, in the absence of hard boundaries, much of the wildlife would move in and out of the cull zones. Badgers, along with foxes and other wild animals, cross motorways every night (and most survive), so these cannot be regarded as a hard boundary. Badgers are also amazing swimmers and can swim across large rivers and against the current. I’m sure you’re aware that 40% of farms in the hotspot areas have been TB-free for 10 years or more, and, naturally, they wish to stay that way.

Firstly, Lord Krebs’ statement, made in the House of Lords on 21 October, indicated that after 9 years the “very best” possible reduction we could expect would be a 16% decrease in TB.

Lord Krebs: "My Lords, as has been said, bovine TB is a serious problem, and it deserves serious science to underpin policy. I do not want to take up too much time, but I hope that your Lordships will forgive me as an individual who has been involved in this over the past 15 years and, as has been said, instigated the randomised badger culling trial and took part in the review of the evidence with Sir Bob Watson last year. It is worth briefly repeating the facts: the long-term, large-scale culling of badgers is estimated to reduce the incidence of TB in cattle by 16% after nine years. In other words, 84% of the problem is still there. To reflect on what that means, this is not a reduction in absolute terms but actually a 16% reduction from the trend increase. So after nine years, there is still more TB around than there was at the beginning; it is just that there is 16% less than there would have been without a cull. The number is not the 30% that the NFU quoted; that is misleading, a dishonest filleting of the data. The other thing that the experts conclude is that culling makes the situation worse at the beginning so it will take a long time to emerge into this Nirvana of a 16% reduction, and 84% of the problem is still there.

"That is just the background. I turn to questions that I hope the Minister will answer. Last Friday we were told by the Minister of State for Food and Farming that between 500 and 800 badgers would be culled in each of the two areas. The number, thanks to rapid badger reproduction over the weekend, is now 5,530 over the two areas-a fourfold increase. I am impressed. What this underlines is that if the policy is to cull at least 70% of the badgers, we have to know what the starting number is. This variation from just over 1,000 to more than 5,000 in the space of a few days underlines how difficult it is for us to have confidence that the Government will be able to instruct the farmers to cull 70% if they do not know the starting numbers. So my first question to the Minister is: how will he assure us that these numbers are accurate?"

SAVE ME is shocked the government would ignore all scientific advice and evidence and proceed with these pilot culls. We will campaign to prevent these pilot culls going ahead.

Below is a graph showing a number of cattle slaughtered for various reasons - bTB is not the biggest issue.

Information from The Cattle Book 2008 DEFRA:

Total cattle population on 1 June 2008 GB was 8,868,469.

Total number dairy cows (calved) over 2 years of age in GBm 2008, was 1,593,949. Total GB dairy cattle 3,133,006.

35.3% of cattle in GB 2008 were dairy cattle, 62.7% were beef, and 2% were dual-purpose and 'unknown' cattle.

A total number of milking dairy cows, over 2 years of age, estimated by the author to have been culled prematurely in GB, in 2008, was 301,096. This excludes the black column named Bovine TB. It has been added to the chart to represent the estimated 10,567 calved dairy cattle over 2 years of age, culled in connection with the TB control programme. It is acknowledged that dairy cows have over twice the incidence of bTB than beef cattle.

Total figure for cattle culled in connection with the bTB eradication programme in GB 2008 is 39,973

All figures in the chart, though carefully compiled, should be regarded as a close approximation and not exact. However, they are useful for comparison purposes.

In the absence of Official Government Data on the premature culling of dairy cattle, these above figures have been carefully extrapolated and compiled by the author from data gathered by the Kite Health and Culling Monitor of 2009 for the year 2008. Their data covered 58,210 cows in 322 herds, with an overall culling rate for 2008 of 18.89%. Kite suggests a target benchmark of less than <25% replacement rate as a key performance indicator. Levels can vary from 12% to 45%. Note that the TB figures have dropped considerably in GB since 2008 due to ongoing cattle measures.

The excellent Kite scheme is an advisory/monitoring service for herdsmen. It is designed to help improve health, welfare, and profitability of dairy cows. An aim of the scheme is to achieve a lower culling rate. Thus, the culling rate amongst non-participating farms is likely to be somewhat higher than figures given in the Chart (not the TB Column).

Some of the cattle slaughtered in connection with the bTB control programme go into the human food chain and the money obtained is used by Defra to offset some of the costs of the programme.

BTB poses negligible risk to human health in the UK. The current policy has a greater adverse effect on cattle welfare than the disease could

The existing test and cull regime would take decades to achieve OTF status, if it ever did, whatever is done or not done to badgers

The “skin test” is only suitable as a herd test. It misses far too many cattle (and condemns too many falsely) to be very effective in finding infected individuals and removing them from the herd

It is widely said that countries which have achieved OTF status have addressed any wildlife reservoir. It is conveniently forgotten (by those wanting to slaughter wildlife) that the two examples they choose most often, Australia and USA, have used the skin test as a herd test – if one reactor is found the whole herd, however large, is slaughtered

Most importantly cattle vaccination must be allowed. It could be used alone or alongside any other policies and methods. The vaccine and the accompanying test could be licensed this year with the political will

Only EU law prevents cattle vaccination and EU law overrules ours. Defra claims that it would take 5 years to change. They have been saying this for as long as anyone can remember and there is little evidence of efforts to actually change it. Other authorities say it could be changed very quickly. The French and Italians would probably just ignore it. It is intolerable that we cannot use vaccines to protect our cattle and the interests of our farmers against BTB. The reason for the EU prohibition, interference with the skin test, is no longer relevant as a different test would be used on vaccinated cattle.

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SaveMeTrustFriends

WhatisBTb?

Btb is Mycobacterium bovis Mycobacterium bovis, often referred to as the bovine tubercle bacillus, is a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, a group of organisms with the capacity to cause tuberculosis in humans. Most animals are potential reservoirs of infection. Cattle, in particular, are susceptible to infection and subsequent tuberculous lung disease caused by M. bovis.

Mycobacterium bovis is a slow-growing (16 to 20 hour generation time), aerobic bacterium and the causative agent of tuberculosis in cattle (known as bovine TB). Related to M. tuberculosis—the bacterium which causes tuberculosis in humans—M. bovis can also jump the species barrier and cause tuberculosis in humans.

M.bovisincattle

During the 1930s, 40% of slaughtered cattle in England and Wales had obvious tuberculosis. Rates of disease have fallen dramatically since this time with new confirmed cases occurring in only about 0.4% of UK cattle herds each year. However, the incidence of tuberculous disease in UK cattle caused by M. bovis is increasing. The most significant increase in M. bovis cases is reported from the south west of England, where over 1% of cattle herds are now affected annually.

AShaftofLight

The prisoner walked along the narrow corridor towards the place of execution. Many others had gone before her and the concrete floor was covered in blood, and worse. The floor – a path as terminal as the route taken by a falling star – was slick beneath her feet, and she struggled to keep her balance ... A Shaft of Sunlight

BVA&theIEPsayit'sinhumane

“The BVA have already rightly condemned free-shooting of badgers as inhumane, and free-shooting is now exactly what George Eustice is profferring as a policy, in a desperate attempt to turn the cull around from the tragic mess it has created. Last year, The Government’s own IEP (Independent Expert Panel) came to the conclusion that the cull was inhumane, and were promptly dispatched, an indication in itself of a callous disregard for the suffering of animals.

Experts including Lord Krebs have been warning the Government from the beginning that killing badgers will not make any impact on the problem of Bovine TB in Cattle. But at the moment, flying in the face of all evidence, the Government has announced its intention to continue the slaughter. To cap it all, Wales, where no badgers have been killed, is now showing a significant improvement in bTB incidence in cattle. They achieved this by stronger controls within the cattle farming industry. The public, along with new Conservative MPs, are disappointed with the apparent prioritising of a return to blood sports in the early days of a new administration. It looks as if both fox-hunting and badger culling are becoming toxic issues for this Government.”

WhocarriesBTb?

The following animals have been shown to carry bovine TB.

Deer = 36% positive (includes farmed, wild and park deer)

Cat = 25% positive

Dog = 27% positive

Pig = 19% positive

Alpaca = 56% positive

Llama = 0%

Sheep = 44% positive

Goat = 0

Ferret (!) = 0

Farmed wild boar = 0 (NB: two cases this year confirmed for wild boar and TB, both on TB infected farms

Foxes, Dogs, cats and Rats are also know to carry bTB.

HUMANS have a 1% incidence of TB, skewed to farm workers. An increasing trend is for higher occurrences (live cultural positives) of TB in cats and alpacas.

TransmissionofBTb

Transmission of M. bovis can occur between animals, from animals to humans and vice versa and rarely, between humans. As with M. tuberculosis, transmission is most commonly by the aerosol route but also through the ingestion of milk and meat from infected animals. The link between drinking milk from diseased cows and the development of scrofula, cervical lymph node tuberculosis, was established mid-19th century when more than half of all cervical lymphadenitis cases in children were caused by M. bovis. Infection acquired through ingesting M. bovis is more likely to result in non-pulmonary forms of disease. Pasturisation of milk, immunisation of humans and healthy diet has seen the number of cases reduce dramatically. It should be noted cattle with bTB lesions do routinely enter the food chain.

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